Life After High School

In some parts of the United States, schools encourage their students to plan for college in early high school and even middle school. There are many advantages to getting prepared for college early, but some parents worry that it’s too early. Parents believe that their children can get burnt out and worried about college if they are forced to plan for it too early. Planning doesn’t necessarily have to be just college, it can also be planning for a future career. I’m going to help you decide when you should tell your child to start planning for life after high school.

There are many advantages to starting planning early for life after high school. But most parents you’re aren’t sure if their child should plan for life after high school early. An obvious reason to start planning early is that it allows the student to get ahead and learn what they want to do. The earlier you plan for college, the less you have to worry about your senior year of high school. But what does planning for college actually mean? Part of planning for college is applying for colleges to see where you can get accepted. An advantage of applying early is that you’ll have less competition since not as many students apply for college early. Applying early also means that you will receive an answer earlier. Also remember that just because you apply early doesn’t mean you have to make a decision early. That’s an advantage of applying for college early.

Starting to plan for life after high school too early can be unnecessary and here’s why. But that’s why planning early isn’t a good idea because there’s nothing wrong with planning during your senior year. If your worried about what career path you want to pursue, then your planning too early. Planning too early can put a lot of stress on students especially when they haven’t decided on what career they want to pursue yet. A part of planning early is applying for colleges by submitting applications. It’s hard for students to have all of their materials ready so that they can submit an application while they also have other school work that they need to do. Another big disadvantage of applying early is that you will lose a semester’s worth of credits going towards college. Getting accepted into a college is going to be more difficult because the competition is better when you apply early.

In conclusion, I would suggest that students shouldn’t feel rushed to make a decision. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with deciding your career during your senior year. I personally didn’t decide what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go to college until my senior year of high school. I’ve also been told by other teachers that waiting to make a decision isn’t a problem at all. So don’t feel like you must plan early because I made my decision during my senior year.

“graduation” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0.